Reviews by DillanWeems:

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I have no aversion to reasonably priced wine such as Mondavi's Private Selection. Yes, the Mondavi family sold out to a big corporation. My cars also were built by big corporations, and my house, and my insurance is from them, and my food is from them, and where I buy beer is from a big corporation, and also groceries. My bank is one of the biggest of all, and so is my brokerage. In short, I oppose neither capitalism nor the corporate structure. To this day, I'll drink a Budweiser heavy any time it's around and there's nothing better (including the Mexican imports or a skunky Heineken). I don't mind large corporations, if they deliver the best quality at the best price.

Indeed, I had a Budweiser on Saturday. Although Inbev has cut some of the most stringent requirements of the Busch family - such as whole grains of rice - I notice nothing different about Budweiser beer since Inbev took over from the family that started A-B. Regular Budweiser is absurdly pale and clear. My little kid mentioned he could see my whole hand through the glass when I was holding the beer mug at Coco's. The head has no chance at all, foaming up briefly and calling it quits. The carbonation level is absurd, with big fat bubbles streaming wildly the entire time. The smell and taste are so light that they are closer to nothing than to something. There's a smell, and it's pleasant, but barely detectable. Same for the taste. The feel is purely water.

Black Crown is a huge contrast to regular Budweiser. Anyone saying it's the same, must not have had Budweiser heavy in years. It's radically different. This is not exactly a regular macro beer at all. This is Budweiser Brewery's attempt at craft.

The color is a deep amber. This deep color has gravitas, suggesting beer with substance. The head foams up abundantly, and retains shockingly well for a Budweiser. The head hardly retains at all compared to a craft lager, though. The bubbles are small and serious, proclaiming the presence of beer, not Budsaki. Lacing? No. What do you think this is, a Boston Lager?

The aroma of Black Crown is promising. I mean, it has a detectable aroma. I checked the born-on date (Inbev has not corrupted the Busch family obsession with freshness) and got a 12-pack made within 2 months in a sealed box. In this fresh state, Black Crown has the distinctive Budweiser aroma, but instead of damped down to 2 it's cranked up to 6. It's a distinctive hops aroma, I think, with a flowery, grassy quality. Underneath, the malt lets itself be known. Yes, Black Crown has a malt backbone that you can detect in the aroma.

Initially, the taste of Black Crown is a revelation. Wow. The pleasant flavor of Budweiser is turned way up. The faint flavor that's buried within the overall nothingness of Budweiser is fully present. At first, it's a tremendously appealing flavor. However, at full strength this one-note flavor quickly wears thin. A hyper-Budweiser flavor only takes things so far. I mean, it's cool to experience in one 12-pack in my life time, and it's not a bad flavor. It's just that Black Crown completely lacks the subtle complexity and nuance of, for example, Samuel Adams Boston Lager or Stone Pale Ale 2.0. Even a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, which has never been one of my favorite pale ales, offers more of a complex experience. Black Crown is just too much of that floral and grassy Budweiser flavor we all know, too much of the time, and without deeper qualities. The Busch family (deposed by Inbev) way back in the 19th century got it right when they made Budweiser so light, in a crude approximation of pilsner beers that Augustus Busch sampled in Germanic nations. The flavor actually works best when it is as light as in their original. Still, it's fully flavored and pleasant, unless it overwhelms you and makes you barf.

Seriously, this full-on Budweiser flavor could overwhelm and gag . . . but it doesn't - not quite. There's a suggestion it could happen.

The feel is a big upgrade for Budweiser. This beer is a full-bodied lager. The feel is very good, aside from the way the beer quickly goes flat. The ABV of 6 helps a lot, but much of it is from the malt. It's a full and very enjoyable feel. The quick speed at which the beer goes flat suggests A-B attempted to make a strong break from Budweiser's absurdly high carbonation. At the same time, high quality craft beers don't fall flat like Black Crown. Some sort of cheapness in ingredients or process is sneaking under that Crown.

Black Crown is good. Is it as good as, for example, Boston Lager or Stone Pale Ale 2.0? Nope. They offer nuanced and subtle tastes. Is Boston Lager worth the extra money? Sure, most of the time. If I want that trademark Budweiser aroma and flavor in superabundance, I know where to find it.

I picked this up because it was new and cheap and whatever. Poured from a bottle.

The color was clear and golden and pretty. A light head that faded within one minute to lace.

The smell is light malt. Very light. I did not smell any hops.

For the rest of the review no reason to get too detailed. You know how you go to that wedding reception or graduation party at the Moose Lodge or American Legion Post and they have two dollar pitchers of Budweiser draft that has been in the keg for four months? Yep.

A slightly stronger, overaged Budweiser draft. Not Bud Lite, Bud.

Instead of $6 for 6, it should be $2 for a whole 32oz pitcher. With some pull off or scratch off lottery tickets. And cake on a Styrofoam plate.

It seems as though The CANQuest (TM) has imbued me with a modicum of prescience! It took about ten months, but I stumbled across a couple of CANs while browsing at Connecticut Avenue Wine & Liquor Deli in DC before going into KramerBooks & AfterWords. I knew that someone at ABInBev would hear my impassioned plea to put this beer in a CAN.

The black tab of the CAN had a crown die-cut out of it, making the Crack! all that much more memorable! It was a 16 fl. oz./pint CAN, so I employed a shaker glass as the vessel into which it was Glugged as this tends to avoid overflow when the CAN is inverted. Once more, I must marvel at the engineering that goes into an ABInBev beer. I began with a finger of puffy, French Vanilla-colored head that fell rather quickly. It was the color and clarity that really captured my attention, however. Bright? Hell, it achieved filament brightness, enabling me to see the filament in the bulb to which I was holding up the beer! The color was a deep gold (SRM = &gt; 7, &lt; 9) and I have never seen the Unholy Trio of Midas, Mammon and Croesus appear so quickly. I took pity on them for once and allowed each one a sip since they were obviously enamored of it. Nose was sweeter than many of ABInBev's other beers: rich, with a caramel/coconut aspect. Mouthfeel was medium and the taste was more towards caramel, but I was still getting some coconut. Hmm. It was not bad, per se, but just a bit too sweet for my sensibilities. Decent lacing began to form as I drank through it. It was not hard to drink, in fact, it was quite quaffable to the point that I was powering through it, causing MCM to look downcast, so I let them have some more. I kid you not, this was an absolutely gorgeous beer, which may be the best thing that I CAN say about it. The finish was pretty sweet, enough to leave me ready to drink another beer, preferably something hop-forward.

My initial bottle review, dtd 03-06-2013 follows:

Another from my "neighbor's" cooler. As usual, I am game to try anything once.

From the bottle: "Distinctively smooth, beechwood aged"; "Golden Amber Lager"; "We challenged our 12 Budweiser Brewmasters to create a new masterpiece. Six unique beers were crafted and sampled across America. One was chosen. This amber lager's toasted caramel malt notes and smooth finish earned it the black crown."

I will say this about ABInBev beers - they never lack for carbonation and effervescence. I started out with a finger-and-a-half of foamy french vanilla-colored head and it slowly fizzled down to less than a pinky's worth. Color and clarity were both fabulous with a deep-amber like you might see prehistoric bugs encased in and the opportunity to see all that there was to see, which in this case was the other side of the glass, the other side of the room, et al. I saw where previous reviewers mentioned its smell and it was nice, to be sure. It had a lightly toasted smell, sweet, but not necessarily caramel. More toward coconut. Mouthfeel was soft, especially after all of the initial carbonation. The taste was toasty, bready, not really even all that sweet. Finish was semi-dry and refreshing. It really was not a bad effort, although not a "masterpiece". If they put it in a CAN, I would be willing to try it again, but otherwise, it is one among many of its style.

Took a small sample of Jeff's - gotta try everything I guess. Pours a golden-amber hybrid with stunning clarity and a head that fizzles away almost before I'm done pouring my damn sample. Looks similar to a regular Bud, though a darker shade - more amber than straw. Definitely looks better, though. The aroma is... almost nonexistent. Took me three or four really big whiffs to really pull anything from this one, and when I did - it still wasn't that great. Graininess, lightly toasted caramel malts, musky and grassy hops, metal. Had slightly more sustenance than a Budweiser, but what is that really saying?

The taste was different, to say the least. Heavy crispiness from the carbonation, followed by some corn, grains, light caramel, wet/sour wood, and an extremely light hop character, with an almost astringent bitterness in the aftertaste (albeit a very low bitterness). Tastes like someone mixed a Budweiser with a 6-month old Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. Honestly. It was like a pale ale that was left sitting on the shelves and much of the hop character has died out, leaving behind mild hop flavor with some light, toasted malts. But this beer still had that distinct "Budweiser twinge" to it. Sounds ridiculous, I know. But try it and tell me I'm not right. Must be the beachwood aging? Crisp mouthfeel, light and airy on the palate.

Final verdict? Better than Bud Light, Budweiser, and the rest of the lot, but still nowhere near good enough to require a second purchase.

Another beer to come from a big brewer that has loads of potential and just does not follow through and is not bold enough to be epic. With that said it lands average, if the flavors did not pull their punches I'd be singing some praise for this brew.